Implementing prevention policies for mother-to-child transmission of HIV in rural Malawi, South Africa and United Republic of Tanzania, 2013–2016

In recent years, ambitious global commitments have been made to improve programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In 2011, the Global Plan was launched to “elimi-nate infant HIV infections by 2015 and keep their mothers alive”. 1 While the target was not reached, the initiative contributed to a 60% decline in infant infections from 270 000 to 110 000 between 2009 and 2015 across 21 priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa. 2 More recently, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) set targets to reach 95% of pregnant women living with HIV with sustained, lifelong HIV treatment, and to reduce the annual number of newly infected children to less than 40 000 by the end of 2018 globally.